Ultra-Orthodox Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman on Monday declared that Israel would call the new potentially deadly disease that has already struck two continents 'Mexico Flu,' rather than 'Swine Flu, as pigs are not kosher.

"We will call it Mexico flu. We won't call it swine flu," Litzman told a news conference on Monday, assuring the Israeli public that authorities were prepared to handle any cases.

Under Jewish dietary laws, pigs are considered unclean and pork is forbidden food, although the non-kosher meat is available in some stores in Israel.

...This attempted rebranding of swine flu raises another issue about the dangers of Israel's lack of separation of synagogue and state, albeit one less important or divisive than the monopoly held by the religious over marriage, death, circumcision, public transport, and dietary laws.

This danger is the constant ability of the religious, when put in charge of government ministries, to make a mockery of a modern, would-be sophisticated western country that sees itself as a beacon of pluralism and modernity in a region darkened by religious fundamentalism and political extremism.

More than 2,000 ultra-Orthodox protestors demonstrated Thursday in Jerusalem, demanding that the Egged bus company introduce more segregated buses in the capital.

Organizers distributed leaflets addressing the importance of the struggle for segregation aboard buses in more neighborhoods in the capital, while rabbis and Orthodox public officials delivered speeches.

Municipal official Rachel Azaria, who protested against the segregated bus lines, told Ynet: As a religious woman, I came to make sure that the public space remains pleasant for everyone.

As one who grew up in Jerusalem and has no intention of leaving it, I care about what this city is like."

"The [ultra-]Orthodox are very good at pressing Egged and when it introduces new segregated lines, the service in the regular lines is undermined," she said.

"I don't force anyone to sit next to me on the bus, and everyone can decide on their own segregation and who they wish to sit next to. Yet nobody should decide for us how to travel on buses."

Event organizer Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Viener explained the Vaad Rabbonim for Transportation is seeking mehadrin service in all areas with 90-95% or higher chareidi ridership on buses, permitting men and women to use separate doors and to accommodate the religious lifestyle of the chareidi community.

The rav stated “they simply won’t budge” regarding Egged and others as talks to date have failed to bring about new mehadrin lines, particularly buses servicing the Kosel.

The Ometz organization turned to Justice Minister Prof. Yaakov Ne’eman with a complaint against four Tel Aviv Rabbinate dayanim, which the organization accuses of arranging a get (bill of divorce) for the husband of a mentally challenged woman without her knowledge.

The state’s ombudsmen for judges and dayanim dealt with the matter in the past, recommending disciplinary actions against the Av beis din as well as a formal censure in the files of the other dayanim who dealt with the case. Former Justice Minister Daniel Friedman did not address the ombudsmen’s recommendation.

Ometz is now calling on Ne’eman, in his capacity as the authority permitted to convene the appointment committee, to suspend the Av beis din as well as demanding criminal charges against him.

Ometz expresses surprise and disappointment that to date nothing has been done in the matter, adding if the current administration opts to refrain from taking action against the dayan, the matter will be brought before the High Court of Justice.

Following a recent complaint filed by theOmetz Organization pertainingto travel abroad of Israel’s chief rabbis, a system is being established by which privately funded trips abroad will have to receive prior approval from a ministerial body.

In a letter sent to Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who is handling the matter, Israel Chief Rabbinate official Oded Viener requests that the committee be made up of ministers, not clerks, a move that will better preserve the dignity of the position of the nation’s chief rabbis.

The entire matter surrounds a private trip made abroad by Rabbi Yona Metzger Shlita. According to Israel Channel 10, the chief rabbi traveled privately, funded by people abroad, assisting them in fundraising for their organization, a move that is not permitted for the senior civil servant.

The Ometz Organization has turned to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in his capacity as the overseer of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel regarding recent travels abroad by Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger Shlita.

The letter is based on an investigation, questioning if the rav traveled abroad using allotted vacation time or if he was paid ‘on the job’. The organization also wishes to know if there is any follow-up to the rav’s business trip and if there is any agency monitoring his accountability as a senior civil servant.

Ometz is calling for an accounting regarding salaries and expenses for personnel accompanying the rabbi abroad, wishing to learn if they were paid by taxpayers or private funders during a fundraising trip abroad.

Ometz requests formulating well-defined criteria to set guidelines for the chief rabbis pertaining to travel abroad, seeking to prevent using a government office for private benefit including fundraising missions.

The Tel Aviv citycouncilhas approved a budget of NIS 28.9 million for the city's religious councilthis year, more than one-third of which will go toward funding theretirementof its employees, reportswww.mynet.co.il .

The report said that out of the NIS 28.9 million budget for the religiouscouncilin 2009, 13.6 percent (NIS 3.9 million) would come from the city, while the remainder would come from the government and from income for services rendered, such as marriage fees (NIS 1.95 million), kashrut certificates (NIS 1.25 million),mikveh(ritual bath) fees (NIS 1.3 million) and others.

It said the religiouscouncilwas responsible for managing and maintaining 21 ritual baths, spending NIS 6.2 million on them, of which two-thirds (NIS 4.1 million) was for salaries.

The budget also shows an increase in the salaries of some 15 neighborhood rabbis, who received a total of NIS 945,000 in 2008 andthis yearwill receive a total of NIS 978,000.

Another major company going kosher: Cosmetics company Il-Makiage announced Sunday that it plans to begin observing the Shabbat as of this Friday – for the benefit of its store workers and customers from the religious and ultra-Orthodox sectors.

Il-Makiage owns a make-up college and 25 stores acrossIsrael. Its branches all over the country will now be closed on Shabbat and on Jewish holidays, enabling the religious and haredi public to enjoy the brand's products without hurting their religious sensitivities.

After years of seeking a solution to the problem of electricity generated by Jewish work on Shabbos, a solution is on the horizon.

A rabbinical committee founded several months ago to seek a solution to the problem sent a delegation last Tuesday to visit the power station in Ashkelon to study the immense advances made towards full automation to produce electricity free of chilul Shabbos.

"The technological systems in the power stations were not built according to halachic criteria, so we had to invest considerable financial and technological resources to find solutions to the halachic problems on the way to full automatization.

Non-essential administrative actions which didn't have to be performed on Shabbos were shifted to the weekdays despite possible risks. We did surveys and inspections to see what other changes could be made..."

…The visit concluded with a farbrengen at the Chabad House at which Mr. Rivlin promised the local Chabad House director Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Slonim that he would help with the various activities run by the Chabad House and the shul for tourists and youth.

So, what does a women's head covering look like? The immediate answer would be a hat or a scarf, but the eight artists participating in the "Glu-ya" exhibition, which opens at the Lifschitz Teachers' College in Jerusalem on Thursday, have a rather different perception of the issue.

Head covering for women is a significant topic in the modern ultra-orthodox discourse.

Modi'in Illit is the second leading city, after Jerusalem, in the number of apartments sold by private entrepreneurs in recent years, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.

“It’s not a surprise considering the strong desire among young couples and large families to live here,” said Modi'in Illit Mayor Rabbi Yaakov Guterman. But it is the first time the city has reached the number two position.

The ratings, published this week by the Globes business news service, show 293 Modi'in Illit housing units were sold in 2007, and 556 in 2008, as compared to 564 apartments sold in Jerusalem during 2008.

There appears to be a power struggle surrounding control of Haifa’s main shul, a shul that is no longer a center for mispalalim, but serving a small number of people on Shabbos, who generally daven in a downstairs small chapel.

Belzer Chassidim of Haifa are working to utilize the main shul, which sits vacant, but it appears their plans are not supported by all.

At one point a number of years ago, the city’s chief rabbi, Rav Shar Yashuv Cohen Shlita turned to the local Chabad community to daven in the upper sanctuary, but it appears the invitation was short-lived, expiring after the yomim tovim.

Passengers belonging to the ultra-Orthodox community will soon also be able to enjoy a glatt kosher meal at Ben-Gurion Airport's departure terminal while waiting for their flight.

The Israel Airports Authority plans to issue a tender for the operation of a first-of-its-kind glatt kosher meat restaurant at the terminal's duty free area, following the growing demand for such a service on the part of haredi passengers.

Shas'spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, called on parents and teachers to act to prevent smoking among youth, a phenomenon which he referred to as "a breach which must be thwarted."

Speaking during his weekly sermon Saturday evening, the rabbi said that "if a person sees his son smoking a cigarette, he should shout at him and defend him and stop him from doing it… A yeshiva head who has a meeting and sees his student smoking, should slap him in the face. What are you smoking for?"

But some of the Jewish Agency’s leaders in North America are quietly voicing concerns that Netanyahu’s announcement could undercut their plan to de-politicize the chairman position and keep this key decision in the hands of the organization.

Sharansky’s backers see him as a potential rainmaker who could attract new sources of financial support to make up for the cuts from increasingly cash-strapped federations.

But several of the key proponents of reform at the Jewish Agency fear that the perception of an overly political selection process will hurt efforts to boost support from federations and raise funds from other Diaspora sources.

Several North American philanthropists -- notably Charles Bronfman and Bobby Goldberg -- have long complained that in past decades the Israeli prime minister seemed free to reserve the chairmanship for political allies.

Jewish Agency officials have acknowledged that the perception has been a stumbling block in terms of attracting new donors and, as a result, are in the end stages of a five-year process of revamping the agency's governance structure.

…Besides employment, Landver says she wants to focus her work on housing and the integration of immigrant children.

Concretely, she says she intends to meet with university representatives to try to improve the current system of degree equivalencies, so that immigrant academics and physicians might face less red tape before being able to start working.

Lastly, the 59-year-old plans to strengthen her ministry's cooperation with immigrant assistance groups such as Nefesh B'Nefesh and others.

On Sunday, the government is expected to transfer some of the responsibility for the "Nativ" Russian-Jewish immigration agency to Avigdor Lieberman’s Foreign Ministry. Until now, Nativ fell under the responsibility of the Prime Minister’s office.

As part of the current Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu coalition agreement, Lieberman will head an immigration committee which will incorporate Nativ.

The cabinet budgeted a NIS 82 million discretionary fund to be used towards immigration. In addition, the government committed itself to spending an additional NIS 3 million on immigrant rent assistance.

Nativ officials testified at a Knesset committee in 2008 that there remain 880,000 people in Russia and the Ukraine who are eligible to make Aliyah [immigration to Israel].

Eighty new immigrants from southern Africa received their Israeli identity cards at a welcoming ceremony at the Western Wall. They were the first immigrants to do so, in a special gesture by the Interior Ministry.

The Jewish Agency has made increasing South African aliya one of its big projects over the past two years. This has led to a large percentage of those leaving South Africato choose Israel over the English-speaking countries where many used to go.

The immigrants spoke highly about their reception in Israel, a process the officials have dubbed aliya "on a red carpet."

The aliya approval process is handled back inSouth Africa, and the immigrants have much less to take care of upon arriving.

The writer is Director of theMasorti[Conservative] Movement's Rabbinical Assembly in Israel.

MostMikvehsin Israel are publicly funded. They are, in that sense, the equivalent of thepublic libraries. They ought, by law, be open to all. They are not the personal province of any one group. Yet that is what has become the reality in nearly all of Israel'sMikvehs.

When I lived in the US there wereMikvehsbuilt by Orthodox shuls. In many cases those shuls barred Conservative and Reform converts from using theMikveh. I never cared for this slap atKlal Yisraelbut since the funding for theMikvehwas private, it was the right of theMikvehowners to take a parochial approach.

In Israel it is the tax-payers who fund theMikvehs. They do not belong to the Ultra-Orthodox, though the keys are most often in the hands of those on the payroll of the religious (read: Orthodox) councils.

…discrimination for reasons of religion - against the Reform movement, for instance - is part of the fabric of life in Israel.

The freedom of religion promised in the declaration is also supposed to be freedom from religion, but all the promises to pass a domestic partnership law, which would allow for an alternative to religiously sanctioned marriage, are still no more than words.

…Sure, being Orthodox is easier in Israel, because being Jewish in general is easier here, but Israel isn't a halachic state, and is far from being a religious paradise. Therefore, Hess's argument on this front is not really valid.

…Hess said that if the Conservative\Masorti movement's campaign to encourage aliyah fails, the lack of a "warm embrace" and "pluralistic" Judaism will be to blame. I say: Stop blaming "The Orthodox" for your movement's shortcomings.

The campaign won't be effective, unless the movement rethinks its priorities. Start working from the foundations; teach your children to put Torah first, and then they will understand why they need tolive in Israel. If Judaism isn't the top priority in their lives, what reason is there to make aliyah?

So Yizhar Hess, next time you want to encourage aliyah, don't accuse "The Orthodox" of making it difficult. These movements are causing their own problems. We didn't make aliyah because we have better institutions than Conservative and Reform Jews in Israel.

To paraphrase my friend, anyone who made aliyah did it despite whatever problems he or she had with Israel, because at the end of the day, olim put Zionism and Judaism above all.

No matter the outcome, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion President Ellenson made it clear that the Jerusalem campus would not be affected if any others were eliminated.

Rabbi Michael Marmur, dean of the Jerusalem branch, told thePoston Tuesday that "each campus is part of an integrated institution, and we are all being affected by the budget cuts in the short term. Rabbi Ellenson and I agree, though, that Jerusalem's campus is still very strong."

Ellenson made it clear that closing any of the campuses would be a terrible blow to the Reform movement.

"I wish with all my heart and soul that this were not so," he said. "Yet all the wishing in the world cannot alter the reality we face."

I have recently come under serious criticism for my outspokenness against abuses in the Israeli rabbinate.

I have not hesitated to raise my voice against what I perceive to be the injustices being meted out to converts, or the fact that burial authorities capitalize on the vulnerability of mourners in their darkest hour to impose upon them either financial or religious burdens.

I am vocal about the way in which new immigrants (and those seeking to emigrate) are treated by the Ministry of Interior and I do not tolerate the inability of the Orthodox community to open its doors to the non-Orthodox.

I find it hard to be silent to the cry of the widow or theagunahor the plight of the convert. I have been told a number of times that in my outspokenness, I am undermining the image of Israel and discouraging Jews fromaround the worldfrom believing in its future.

By law, every Israeli citizen is eligible for free burial near his or her place of residence, and the local hevra kadisha (burial society) provides a rabbi to conducts the funeral; its expenses are reimbursed by the National Insurance Institute.

But like the event on the other side of the continuum - birth - and many other parts of our lives, death is no longer the exclusive domain of state services.

…People who wish to secure a different kind of resting place for their loved ones have two alternatives to the municipal cemetery: private burial on kibbutzim and cremation.

About 10 kibbutzim offer such services, which are not overseen by the burial society and are thus unrestricted by religious tradition.

Moshe Feiglin, head of Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership Movement) said last week that if he was electedprime minister, he would try to rebuild the destroyedTemple in Jerusalem.

"I don't know if I will have the merit of doing something that is the aspiration of every Jew," said Feiglin.

"But if I become prime ministerI will take away control over the Temple Mount from the Wakf [the Islamic trust] and reinstate Jewish sovereignty over the entire mount and, hopefully, rebuild the Temple."

Feiglin said that rebuilding the Temple and all that it symbolized was the essence of a Jewish state.

Father David Neuhaus, one of 15 members of the planning committee appointed by the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, is trying to avoid political minefields.

The Israeli liaison with the Vatican ahead of the Pope's visit is a 53-year-old Druze from Isfiya. Bahij Mansour exchanged a military career (deputy brigade commander with the rank of lieutenant colonel) for a diplomatic one (the first Druze ambassador to Angola).

As head of the Foreign Ministry's religious affairs section he spends a significant part of his time negotiating with Vatican representatives over the status of the Church's many assets in Israel.

The negotiations began with the 2002 Arrangements Bill, supplementary to the state budget, which requires Church institutions to pay taxes.

Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov plans to announce Sunday during the weekly government meeting that the NIS 43 million ($10.1 million) budget set aside for Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Israelhas not yet been put to use, and that this could wreak havoc on the tour scheduled to take May 11.

The minister also warns that construction of infrastructure and renovations have not been completed on the holy sites the pope plans on visiting.

Ten-year-long negotiations between Israel and the Vatican appear to be drawing to a close, with concerns rising that Israel will cede control of the building housing King David’s Tomb in Jerusalem.

The Bilateral Permanent Working Commission – a team of negotiators representing Israel and the Vatican – released an upbeat press release at the end of last week, speaking of "meaningful progress," "great cordiality," and a mutual commitment to reaching a final agreement "as soon as possible.”

Tellingly, a plenary meeting has been announced for this Thursday, April 30, at the Foreign Ministry.

The meeting will be chaired by the two states’ deputy foreign ministers, Danny Ayalon and Monsignor Pietro Parolin. It is widely believed that the agreement will be signed then.